Adam Rosenberg
Surgeon Simulator Anniversary Edition finds fun in frustration by laying out vague goals that can only be completed by mastering awkward controls.
Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare injects some fresh ideas into its multiplayer shooting, but PopCap Games' lack of genre experience is apparent.
Destiny is a good game, but not a great one. You'll want to spend tens of hours with it, but you'll wish certain things could be better all the while.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor nears perfection, but the demands of a scripted narrative work against its freeform structure.
Dragon Age: Inquisition is an incredible game -- one that's almost too big for its own good.
Ryse: Son of Rome rises above its rote hack-and-slash design with a handful of inventive ideas and a killer story.
'Splinter Cell: Blacklist' succeeds more than it fails, with an uneven story the only sore spot in an otherwise impressive and content-rich game.
Vanguard Games gives Halo fans something to cheer about in 'Halo: Spartan Assault,' distilling the essence of the first-person series into fun top-down shooter play.
Grid Autosport ditches the feature-bloat of other racing games in favor of a lean, race-first experience.
Respawn Entertainment's Titanfall is immediately fun to pick up and play, but astonishingly short on the long-term hooks that ground most multiplayer shooters.
Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes offers a promising taste of freedom, but there's not much meat to feast on here.
Young Horses' Octodad: Dadliest Catch makes up for clunky controls and a rough final act with undeniable humor and charm.
Wolfenstein: The New Order is no rote shooter; it's a meaty game that delights with its oddball story and well-designed play.
The Last of Us Remastered is the same great game it was in 2013, but Naughty Dog's upgrade could have used more time to bake.
Road Not Taken is an insidiously clever randomly generated puzzle game that stumbles sometimes around awkward design.
EA Tiburon delivers a Madden game to be proud of in Madden NFL 15, thanks in large part to a clear emphasis on bringing new fans into the fold.
Sledgehammer Games finds freshness in familiar territory, delivering the best Call of Duty game in years.
Far Cry 4 is at its best when you ignore the story and focus on the open world's beautiful, living take on unhinged chaos.
Forza Motorsport 5 combines superior visuals, futureworld technology, and the series-standard love for cars and car culture into a flagship launch title for the Xbox One.
Harebrained Schemes and Shadowrun co-creator Jordan Weisman serve their faithful Kickstarter audience well with the launch of 'Shadowrun Returns' for PC/Mac.